Hundreds of rampaging monkeys were caught after they attacked a police station in central Thailand.

Wildlife officers successfully caught and returned some 200 macaques to the Pho Kao Ton Monkey Nursery in Lopburi province, where the animals had escaped on November 16 evening.

The troupe besieged the Tha Hin Police Station next to the nursery, where embattled policemen fearing the monkeys' violent wrath had barricaded themselves inside the building.

Staff from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation laid out traps and chased after the fugitive primates across the town over the weekend.

Footage shows staff hauling the monkeys back into their giant cage.

Authorities said on Sunday, November 17, that the damaged enclosure where the macaques had torn through aged netting had been repaired. More than 100 macaques also voluntarily returned to the nursery, where a local Buddhist temple usually holds food offering ceremonies for them.

Lopburi has been overrun with monkeys, partly due to their religious significance in Thai culture, and because of unregulated tourist feeding practices that have allowed them to thrive.

Though the wild monkeys have become a tourist attraction, their soaring numbers have created an unsafe environment for the locals, who complain about the increasing conflict as more macaques encroach into human settlements.

Lopburi authorities have teamed up with the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation to address the issue through sterilisation and relocation.